Belarussian Model United Nations for University Students 2012 [Sustainable development: the way forward]
Instructional Guide Environment Commission
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012 Environment Commission
Honorable delegates, we are glad to greet you at BELAMUN 2012 Environment Commission! We are happy that your inspiration, creativity and pursuit for active and eventful life brought you to our conference! And we are even happier for those who chose EC as a platform to express their positions and defend their innovative ideas concerning one of the most important and vital issues of nowadays - protecting the planet we all live in! To break the ice we would like to provide you with some personal information about your chairladies. My name is Maria Ugolnik. I am a student of Minsk State Linguistic University where I specialize in public relations, English, French, and German. I’m doing my third year. As long as I study at university, I discover myself in MUNs, especially in BELAMUN. It will be my greatest pleasure to work with you during the conference. I hope that your debates will be active and productive and together we will find the most effective and creative solutions. My name is KseniaSamersova. As a great lover of travelling and opening new countries, cultures, and languages, I found myself at Minsk State Linguistic University where I am doing my last year of studies. My majors are English, Arabic and French as well as International Economy. BELAMUN has become my another passion over last three years and I eagerly hope to find like-minded people among you and wish you fruitful and hot debates accompanied by fun and joy and followed by innovative ideas and spectacular results. So, getting back to the subject, the two topics we are going to deal with within the framework of Environmental Commission at BELAMUN 2012 are“Establishing Guidelines for Abatement of Pollution from Mining Operations” and “Tackling Land Degradation and Desertification”. “Establishing Guidelines for Abatement of Pollution from Mining Operations” As it is stated in dictionaries “Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or (coal) seam.” Throughout the centuries people have been using them without any idea of how it can damage the environment. And now the countries face such environmental consequences as erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water. So, the question has arisen: how can sustainable development be achieved in the contaminated and disintegrating environment? The seventh target of the Millennium Development Goals states: “Ensure Environmental Sustainability… Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources”. To reach this goal each and every state ought to accept, follow, and develop the guidelines for mining operations adopted by the United Nations. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 1992, adopted Agenda 21 as the programme for environmental management for the 21st century. Agenda 21 emphasized the need for environmental guidelines for natural resources development. From this document Environmental Guidelines for Mining Operations were developed. They include: Basic rules for creating, extension and closure of the mining operations; Imposing monitoring and auditing on the acting mines; Development of the Environmental Management Programme.
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Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012 Environment Commission
The material presented in these Guidelines consists of recent examples of environmentalmanagement practices and regulations from various mining countries around the world. Theexamples necessarily reflect the legal and administrative context in the country from whichthey are drawn. They should be taken as a role model for all of the states but adopted to different national situations. Each country must decide itself how toconstruct and implement its own regulatory framework. Moreover each country in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme developed their own guidelines for abatement of pollution from mining operations which include detailed information to facilitate the process of grant of consent, to operate and to suitably advise the industries for taking appropriate measures for abatement of pollution. Guidelines for abatement of pollution from mining operations imposed by the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board are one of the brightest examples. Another example of great work on abatement of pollution form mining operations is Australian government who worked out their own Mine Safety Management Plan. The key elements of this plan include: Management structure How risks are to be managed Arrangements for the safe use of mine Contractor management plan Emergency plan But even since these documents have been adopted the environment is still contaminated by the toxic substances from the mines which are working erroneously without proper monitoring or the closing procedure of which was at variance with the international rules. And it is our goal to prevent and to defend the environment from the perilous impact of mining operations thus developing an area for sustainable development in each and every aspect. Materials for further reading: 1. Environmental Guidelines for Mining Operations http://commdev.org/files/814_file_UNEP_UNDESA_EnvGuidelines.pdf 2. Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook http://wwwwds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937& theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName =WDS&entityID=000094946_99040905052283 3. Agenda 21 http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/ “Tackling Land Degradation and Desertification” As the history shows us, people were too quick to put land to the list of renewable resources. The picture of hectares of absolutely dead soil tells us that obviously the greediness of humankind should know its limit. Land degradation or desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems and is defined as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities". It occurs in drylands, which span a third of the earth’s land surface in over 110 countries. It influences the lives of about 500 000 people – the so-called environmental refugees – including many of the world’s poorest and most marginalized populations. Each year 12 million hectares (ha) are lostto deserts. That is enough land to grow 20 million tonnes of grain. Land degradation, in turn, threatens the livelihood of a billion of earth’s inhabitants. Degradation caused by overcultivation, overgrazing,deforestation and inefficient irrigation affects an estimated 20% of theworld’s drylands, an area as large as China. Page3
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012 Environment Commission
It also needs to be stressed that environmental protection and economic and social development are deeply interlinked. As UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon put it,� the unremitting stress of drought, famine and deepening poverty threatens to create social strains, in turn creating the potential for involuntary migration, the breakdown of communities, political instability and armed conflict� So, obviously the problem of land degradation and desertification does not referred to as merely a food problem. Another point that supports this idea is that it also leads to destruction of any life forms inhabiting the soil as well as plants and trees which altogether keeps us clothed, the air and water clean, the land green and pleasant and which helps to preserve the environmental balance on our planet. Desertification is often the result of human activity and can therefore be prevented or controlled by human effort. Combating desertification, and land degradation more generally, is a war that can be lost, but must be won. Because of its magnitude, desertification is a global issue, and as such canonly be addressed through a global partnership. So we call upon the honorable delegates of BELAMUN 2012 Environmental Commission to demonstrate how effective people might be when they are united by a common goal and are driven by firm commitments and high motivation. As the first step in your preparation we suggest that you get acquainted with the work of the organization dealing with the abovementioned problem, among them: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) The main international document covering the problem of land degradation and desertification is United Nations Convention to Combat Desertificationadopted in Paris on 17 June 1994 and entered into force in December 1996. More information on the topic you can find at the following links: 1. http://www.unccd.int/main.php 2. http://www.ifad.org/events/wssd/gef/GEF_eng.pdf 3. http://desertification.wordpress.com/category/desertification/ 4. http://www.greenfacts.org/en/desertification/index.htm 5. http://www.fao.org/desertification/default.asp?lang=en Please keep in mind that we are here not only to coordinate your work during the conference but also to help you while preparing to it. Diligent work on your resolutions through searching the needed information will provide interesting and fruitful debates during the conference.We hope you find the information in the guide useful but if you still have any questions on the topic of our committee please don't hesitate (or feel free) to contact us via email on m.ugolnik@gmail.com or samerstar@gmail.com
Looking forward to seeing you well-prepared, self-confident and initiative in March. Maria Ugolnik and KseniaSamersova, Chairs of Environment Comission
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